Sourced
from BIS, Mumbai. For further information contact through
donboscomumbai.org website
MUMBAI: 4th June 2005-- 3 NGOs, 5 months
of preparation,150 policemen, a 2-hour raid, 226 workshops combed, 42
employers arrested, 463 children rescued – in
short, the story of one of the biggest-ever raids in the country held
on June 1, 2005 to rescue child labourers from Madanpura
in Central Mumbai where children were forced into illegal child labour. Bal Prafulta, run by the Salesians of the
Our BIS
correspondent interviewed Mr. Santosh Shinde who has been working with
Bal Prafulta for the past 5 years. Mr.
Shinde was the main coordinator on behalf of Bal Prafulta.
He was present right from data collection to the planning and
execution of the rescue operation.
Mr. Shinde:
Bal Prafulta was fully involved in the operation from the start
to the end. We met the children, brought the issue before the concerned
officials, contributed in the preparation of the blue print for the
raid and helped in rescuing the children on the day of the raid. Fr. Baptist, who is actively involved in Bal
Prafulta played an equally important role because he was present with
us throughout the operation and gave us the necessary support and
guidance.
Mr. Shinde: There
are about 70,000 child labourers In Mumbai of whom 25,000 to 30,000
children are Zari workers.
For the past five months we had been
collecting information about these children in Madanpur, in
Mr. Shinde:
Four raids have been conducted in Mumbai till date.
But this was the biggest ever rescue operation where 463
children were rescued. This was possible
because of the networking with different NGOs (Bal-Prafulta, Pratham,
Saathi) and the police. We (the NGOs)
realized that by ourselves we would not be able to tackle the problems
that would come our way. So we combined
our energies to fight this menace. The
problem areas were identified and then with the help of the police
these places were raided.
Mr. Shinde: The
moment the officials heard the name ‘Madanpura’ they were a bit
reluctant because it is a very sensitive area and there would be a lot
of risk involved, including the possibility of riots.
And so we met the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. R.R. Patil and the
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr. Javed Ahmed, who asked the police
to cooperate with us. Though we were
prepared to conduct the operation 15 days earlier but were not able to
do so because the police withdrew at the last minute as they did not
have sufficient force. But this time we were fully prepared.
VOCABULARY
Zari: a thread made of fine gold or
silver wire and used in making traditional Indian garments, weaving it
through to make intricate patterns.
____________________________